GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- The Future Genesee Coalition issued a report today outlining how local governments can save money by sharing services.

The report details eight ways communities can share services, which include combining promotional efforts of city and county parks, a countywide fire authority and a countywide detective bureau.

Former Lt. Gov. John Cherry serves as the chairman of the Shared Service Advisory Council, which is part of the Future Genesee Coalition.

The idea of shared services is nothing new, said Cherry, stating many communities in Genesee County already collaborate in some way or another.

“What has happened to local governments in terms of property tax revenue, the falling nature of it and probably over the next five years, it’s either going to be dropping or stay even, so people are getting more and more concerned with how to deliver the same services with less dollars,” he said.

The list of recommendations can’t be imposed upon governments, but will be promoted with information and training made available to local governments as how to implement the changes.

The Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce will head a countywide Service Center, with George Wilkinson, chamber director of operations, serving as the shared service leader.

The chamber will provide staffing, expertise and strategic partnerships for the collaborations.

“We should have done this 15 years ago,” said Tim Herman, CEO of the chamber. “Now that the groundwork has been laid, we need to really move forward and I really think it ought to be in Genesee County’s DNA to share service.”

The recommendations for the parks system in the county is for the Genesee County Parks Commission to inventory all assets and make certain those properties are adequately promoted.

This doesn’t mean changing the ownership of parks, but cross-promoting events and amenities with local communities, Cherry said.

A countywide fire authority could own and maintain firefighting equipment, such as ladder trucks, reducing the expenditures of individual communities. The authority would be established by the Genesee County Association of Fire Chiefs.

A countywide detective bureau could be established through the Genesee County Association of Chiefs of Police to create efficiency across jurisdictions.

How the bureau is organized depends on the entities interested in participating in the shared service, Cherry said.

Information will be available to the public about how shared services will improve the quality of life. Community leaders advocating the changes will be trained on how to hurdle barriers as part of the project.

“The first few steps are making sure the tools are there,” said Cherry, adding that process will take at least a month. “After that, the hard work begins of using those tools to talk units of government into those shared service arrangements.”

The Shared Service Advisory Council will ultimately determine the top two from the list of eight recommendations to be executed.

“We will implement all of them, but we have to focus primarily on which ones we think we can get the biggest bang for our buck,” Wilkinson said.

The details of how the shared service agreements will work is part of the implementation process, which Cherry said could involve figuring out controls the money, and working with unions where needed.

“Many of these units have agreements with unions, they are not trying to get out from underneath those, but when you get two different unions coming together, there are issues and you have to work your way through them. There will be a need to deal with that,” he said.